Heart attack patients are 40 per cent more likely to receive rapid treatment than a decade ago.

Experts said the improvement was largely down to the creation of specialist 24/7 heart units. Ambulances now take patients suspected of having a heart attack directly to one, where possible, rather than going to A&E.

Rapid treatment after a heart attack is vital, with every minute of delay reducing the chance of survival.

According to the latest national audit, 89 per cent of heart attack patients received cutting-edge treatment within 90 minutes of arriving at hospital in 2014/15, up from just 52 per cent in 2004/05.

When they get there heart attack victims are given primary percutaneous coronary intervention, or PCI, in which a balloon is used to open up the blocked artery and allow blood and oxygen to flow to the heart.

Heart attack patients are 40 per cent more likely to receive rapid treatment than a decade ago. Experts said the improvement was largely down to the creation of specialist 24/7 heart units (file photo)

Around 190,000 people have heart attacks in Britain each year, and nearly 70,000 die as a result.

The audit by University College London, which collected data from 217 hospitals in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, showed 77 per cent of patients received specialist treatment within 150 minutes of calling 999, and 54 per cent within 120 minutes.

This data was not available ten years ago, but experts said it had improved. The report added: 'Four in every five patients are taken by ambulance directly to a hospital capable of providing primary PCI.

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'For those who undergo PCI having first been assessed at another (non-interventional) hospital, half receive PCI within 145 minutes of calling for help.'

Dr Clive Weston, a consultant cardiologist who led the audit, said:'We have witnessed improvements in a number of aspects related to the quality of care for patients following a heart attack in recent years.

'That being said, there is still considerable scope for further improvement.

'Call-to-balloon times are generally reducing. However it would be great to see a reduction in the time taken for an ambulance to be called after that first noticeable symptom occurring. Educating the public on those early warning signs and how to react to them is the key.'

Lucy Wilkinson, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: 'It's great to see that people having heart attacks are being treated in specialist centres and that the time in which they receive their treatment has dropped substantially.

Ambulances now take patients suspected of having a heart attack directly to one, where possible, rather than going to A&E (file photo)

'Centres that provide emergency treatment for a heart attack by rapidly unblocking a coronary artery are imperative to significantly reducing mortality as well as reducing complications from heart attacks.

'However, there is more to do. The nature of heart attacks has changed in the last decade thanks to better medical treatment of risk factors with drugs such as statins, with more patients being admitted without fully blocked coronary arteries – and for these patients the care pathway still needs improvement.'

The researchers found the most common reason for delayed treatment was that a patient did not call 999 quickly enough.

They wrote: 'The report shows that the most common reason why no treatment is given to reopen the blocked artery that caused a heart attack is that the patient delayed seeking medical help after the onset of symptoms.

'A heart attack can be life threatening, if you think you or anyone else is having a heart attack, even if you're not sure, you should phone 999 for an ambulance.'

BUT SURVIVAL RATES STAGNATE FOR HEART FAILURE CASES

Survival rates for people with failing hearts have not improved since the 1990s, according to an Oxford University study published last night. While huge progress has been seen in other forms of cardiovascular disease, patients with heart failure are as likely to die as they were in 1998.

Caused by the heart becoming too feeble to pump blood efficiently around the body, it affects around 900,000 Britons and is the biggest drain on NHS resources of any disease after stroke.

Medical records from 54,313 patients with heart failure showed that after diagnosis 81.3 per cent lived for one year, 51.5 per cent for five years and 29.5 per cent for ten years.

Between 1998 and 2012 these figures barely changed, according to the study published last night in the journal Family Practice. Yet death rates from all forms of cardiovascular disease, including strokes, dropped by 44 per cent in the ten years to 2011, separate research suggests.

The scientists did not investigate exactly why standards have not improved.

But they suspect it may be linked to the fact people tend to suffer from heart failure at an older age. Lack of improvement in treatments could also be to blame. And poor aftercare in cases triggered by a heart attack could be another factor.

Dr Clare Taylor, the lead researcher, said: 'While the survival rates were better than other studies, we disappointingly didn't see any improvement over time.

'More people are surviving following a heart attack, but with a damaged heart.'

Chris Allen, of the British Heart Foundation, said: 'Heart failure is incurable and difficult to treat, which may explain why survival rates for the condition are not improving. It is a cruel and debilitating illness.'